In other years, when LeBron James and burner Twitter accounts weren’t hot-button issues, Mikal Bridges would’ve been a name batted around quite a bit locally in anticipation of the NBA Draft. Checking the boxes of a local kid coming off a national title at Villanova, maybe there is still time over the next nine days for the Bridges bandwagon to start overflowing in Philly.

Bridges is generally projected to be drafted somewhere between 7th and 11th overall, and the Villanova swingman will have an individual workout for the Sixers in Camden later today.

NBA teams don’t draft players just because they’re hometown favorites, but there is a legitimate argument that Bridges’ skill set fits with the Sixers’ young core and the modern NBA in general. With the help of insight from someone who saw him develop over the past four seasons from a solid recruit (but not exactly a McDonald’s All-American, either) to a likely lottery pick, let’s review Bridges’...